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Galleria

Our Yosemite Excursions

El CAPITAN -THE FROZEN PONDER
Elcapitan reflection in the Merced river
(Operation Deep Freeze, Jan. 2001)
This image was taken at a spot we call ponder and can on occasion hold the right amount of water for a reflection. Twice in our past 15 years or so it has had the right water levels. In this case the ice was a bit strong for the image so earlier in the day we broke it back opening up the reflection a bit. Coming back in the evening we had to re-stir the water and break up what new ice had formed over the reflection. The resulting sunset occurred and we grabbed off 6 or 7 images of El Capitan's reflection trying to get one that would work and really display the warmth over the rock face.
Stats: I moved a Neutral Density filter up and down slightly as I bracketed the image. Exposing only for the immediate foreground. I found the top of the image only about a stop and a half brighter then the surface water. A 1 stop ND filter compensated for the differences in light levels.
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question of whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free."
-Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949

SILK DREAMS
Backside of Cathedral Lake
(Operation OMA, July 2008).
Seth’s squawking over the radio awakened me to the reality that I needed to hurry up if I wanted in on the cloud action. Not only that, our time was almost up. The end of the excursion was nearing. I was envious of his position but there was nothing I could do. I stood by what I was doing and worked it hard. But he just wouldn’t go away! He kept nagging about the clouds being at a prime that very moment, stretching across the sky like shredded rubber bands. I was already set up, Hass aiming upwards, setting my image on lower Cathedral lake and the peak.
"The beauty within each of us can be displayed in natures scenes. While we all hold to different values and climates the natural world remains in constant view. Finding that place which represents each of us is a challenge which may remain unfounded, for in finding this moment we may truly understand our own meaning in the world."
Raymond Marlow

FLOWERS IN HER FIELD
Flowers bracket the foreground of El Capitan
(Operation Spring Break, Mar. 2000)
Slogging through a field in front of El Capitan we only hoped we would come across something worthwhile for an image. I finally came across this field of flowers and got down to a lower position to put them in the foreground. The resulting image left me with a nice yellow flower arrangement with the power of El Capitan towering in the background.
"That is all the National Parks are about. Use, but do no harm."
-Wallace Stegner
Stats: Polarized f16-1/4-1/8 sec…seemed like forever with the flowers moving slightly in the wind. Velvia 100 50mm lens.

Cat Cloud Paws
Clouds stretch out over Cathedral Peak
(Operation OMA)
Making the most of clouds that are rarely seen we hurriedly banged out a roll of Velvia film to capture the moment. Many a photographer would say get to your location early to take advantage of the early morning light. In most cases the best light shows end around 10 a.m. or so. This time frame was around 1:30 in the afternoon. Never give up on your image you just never know what you might miss.
"With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway about the flux."
-Bertrand Russell

Nevada Full
Nevada falls in retrospect
I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
-William Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night's Dream”

AS CLOUDS PASS BY
Mist clouds move up the face of El Capitan
(Operation Salvage, April 2003).
We were a little uncomfortable with the idea of stopping amid the fat concentration of tourists but the cloudy mist action beginning to form on the face of El Cap instantly changed our minds. Thankfully we had just passed Bridal so there was still space to stop at the roadside. Finding ourselves in a hurry we went in separate directions and both set up for an image. I settled on this spot with the clouds moving up the face of El Capitan.
“Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.”
Stephen Jay Gould

Trout Haven
Budd lake in early July
(Operation BTS, July 2005)
As I set up for the image, I sorely wanted to edge closer to the precipice of the ice thaw where the fish were more visible and I felt I could better my foreground. I quickly nixed the notion however as I could easily see myself and my gear doing the insta-hypothermia Budd Lake bath upon crashing through the ice. Deciding on a location that seemed somewhat safe I bracketed off images while using a ND filter to cut down on the brightness from top to bottom. The waiting took on a rhythm of its own while watching for the right amount of baby trout to swim in to the image.
"Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much... the wheel, New York , wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely the dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons."
-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Elcap Island
El Capitan reflection in a swollen
section of the Merced River
Elcapitan stands as a prolific mountain in a distant island reflection. Coming across this scene for only our second time in about 10 years or so I found myself with a different lense in the bag and used the 50mm this time around. The resultant reflection came off much different then my first go around where I used a standard lense.
"The modern spectacle of vanished forests and eroded lands, wasted petroleum and ruthless mining…is evidence of what an age without veneration does to itself and its successors."
-Russell Kirk

Expanding Ribbons
Ribbon Falls during spring run off
After some struggling with the creek bed as far as getting on the left side of it, I squirmed my way up the mountain to the end of the line. A few climbers beat me to the punch and were already a good half hour up the pitch as their dog took up residence on a folded blanket. Realizing these climbers would get the real image I conveniently ignored them and went to the right following the sound of the falls. The mist was thick and the water was making things slippery as I found my way through an opening in the rock to the full power of the mist.. Surprisingly cold and wet I tried climbing to higher ground for an image. Sticking things out I shielded my gear and camera as I switched from a 150mm Lense to a 50mm. Turning around quickly I snapped off an image while hoping water would not collect on the lense. Even with a quick turnaround the collection on the lense was heavy. Collecting the thoughts while doing my best impression of a sponge I headed down hill through branches and rocks to a spot somewhat shielded from the spray. from here I set up the tri and hit an image where the spray wasn't so dominating. Later I cleaned up the image a bit and shifted over to a black and white for a finished affect.

CAT CLOUD DANCE
Cathedral Peak and clouds.
(Operation Oma, July 2008)
The time had come for us to leave Yosemite and make our hasty departure. For some reason Yosemite was beckoning for us to stay. Atleast for an hour or two while she put on the cloud dance show. Setting up on this scene was to good to be true. The elements were in place for a serious image and we banged out a quick roll of film to show our thanks to Lady Yosem. This location was in front of Lower Cathedral Lake. It was early enough in the summer that the meadow bogs and water were peaking for the image.
"The earth is a garden and each of us only need care for our own part for life to be breathed back into the planet, into the soil, into ourselves."
-John Jeavons

GOLDEN LEAFS
Upper Yosemite Falls in late Fall
(Operation White Weather, Nov. 1994)
Having just bogarted an image to myself only minutes before I noticed Seth over scrambling around looking at this image. Walking over to this spot myself I noticed it had some potential with the fall and the surrounding golden color in the fall leafs. After some setting up I ran off an image or two with the fall in the background and the leaves as the primary subject.
"The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond our reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the only home we shall ever know; the only paradise we ever need-if we only had the eyes to see."
-Edward Abbey

Mystic Rays
Vernal Falls early morning light rays
A second image in the Vernal fall light mist images displaying the transparent nature of mist and light rays coming through to wake up vernal this early morning.
Wishing I was there now.

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FALL REFLECTIONS
Late fall reflection of Half Dome
(Operation White Weather Nov. 1994)
Doing the usual meandering for an image I came across this look of Half Dome in an isolated pocket of water left stranded from a receding Merced river. Having only a standard lense with me I set up the shot and took a few images of it while the light was still manageable. Seth was in earshot on the radio but I guess at the time I failed to mention it to him which to this day still makes for interesting conversation.
"If a man walks in the woods for love of them, half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed as an industrious and enterprising citizen."
-Henry David Thoreau

WRINKLES IN THE MIRROR
El Capitan winter reflection
(Operation Deep Freeze, Jan. 2001)
Approaching this scene we realized it had potential but deciding best what to do with it was our dilemna. It didn't take to long to figure out what we needed was a reflection only the ice was in the way. Shaving it back would be the best answer but walking out in the water wasn't an option. Eventually we found ways of breaking the ice back and continued raking the water over with a long stick so that it would not refreeze on us. The resultant image displays the power and reflective potential of the area when all conditions are right. Additional credit goes out to Lon Overacker for his work on getting the reflection itself more realistic and removing unwanted darker blues brought on primarily from the film and lower light levels in the snow.
“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food, either.”
Joseph Wood Krutch

Winters Light
Blankets of snow cover a field in front of El Capitan
I thought it best to try and shoot this before the sun made its mark on the trees and melted the snow. The thickness on the trees and the snow mixed with the early light seemed a pleasant thing for the setup.
“The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.”
Joseph Wood Krutch

MERCED REFLECT
Half Dome's reflection in the Merced river
(Operation Option 3, Jan. 2004)
Welcome to the excursion gallery. Most of these images cover moments from our 4 days excursions over the past 15 years in Yosemite. Myself and Seth met in the Marine Corps in 1983 and began shooting Yosemite as a dive into photography. It grew over the years and we still regularly photograph the park about once every other year or so.
Most of our fun, bantor, images, and occasionally a serious side come out in a book which will be entitled "Yosemite Our Way". Its full of everything from the technical aspects of photography to silliness and the occasional realization that we are all just chasing that mystical money shot Yosemite so often seems to wave just out of our reach.
I ran off about 10 or 12 images of this area hoping to capture a moment where the reflection was strongest in the current. The light in the sky mixed with the Fuji Velvia film worked for some nice colors for a winter scene. In Yosemite regardless of the time of year you often just have to wander around and look for an image in this case a reflection of Half Dome appearing in the Merced river.
" Let me enjoy the earth no less because the all-enacting light that fashioned forth its loveliness had other aims than my delight. "
Thomas Hardy

HIGH COUNTRY BEAUTY
water covers the granite in a shallow
pocket of Tenaya Lake
(Operation Loner, Aug 2004)
After moving around Tenaya Lake I found these rocks isolated by the water in a section of the Lake. Using the early morning light and a polarizer the colors in the surrounding area seem to come out, leaving me with a tiny snapshot of the beauty I was experiencing at the moment.
On a side note in a separately brilliant move on my part I almost destroyed the entire roll by jamming the darkslide back into the film holder and letting light in. Part of the film was damaged on the right side but cropping fortunately allowed me to save most of the image .
When I see the beauty in a photograph the time is taken to truly expose the image with my eyes. What may be captured on film can never replace the moment of viewing it and thanking the heavenly father for allowing me to see it. When the film is developed and the excursion has ended it is only the remembrance of that moment and a vision of a slice of film that is left to ponder over for the eternity of my time left on this earth.
Raymond Marlow

TWO FOLD IN YOSEMITE
North and Half Dome reflection in the Merced river
(Operation Deep Freeze, Jan. 2001)
After some researching as to where this locale was we realized it was right under our nose next to the parking lot across the street from the Grocery store. We dubbed the location "The Spot" as its been seen in a number of publications and additional images associated with Yosemite. This location seemed appropriate for a semi reflection with North Dome and Half Dome so I fired off a few rounds while Seth was scoping out a different area.
Nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of 'being and becoming!' That is the broad lesson of the evolution of the world.
— Ernst Haeckel

Nevada Streaming
Nevada Falls flows with additional runs enhancing the rock.
When tranquility steps forth to find its equal, fire and water advance to calm the soul. A peacefulness brought forth in sound and pleasure. As volumes can change with Power and rage constraint will tame the levels of our heart and set forth our manner of being.
Raymond Marlow

The time had come for us to leave Yosemite and make our hasty departure. For some reason Yosemite was beckoning for us to stay. Atleast for an hour or two while she put on the cloud dance show. Setting up on this scene was to good to be true. The elements were in place for a serious image and we banged out a quick roll of film to show our thanks to Lady Yosem. This location was in front of Lower Cathedral Lake. It was early enough in the summer that the meadow bogs and water were peaking for the image.

"The earth is a garden and each of us only need care for our own part for life to be breathed back into the planet, into the soil, into ourselves."